|
FLYBOYS Send This Review to a Friend
Enough films have been made harking back to World War I with its initiation of aerial combat between daring fliers piloting rickety planes with mounted machine guns. Director Tony bill takes us back once again to this era, with the action involving American volunteers known as the Lafayette Escadrille, which helped France fight the Germans. Do we really need another of that vintage?
Certainly the story clichés have by now crashed repeatedly in pictures spanning the 20th century’s wars and airplane technology, but they are dragged out anew for this adventure. The familiar assortment of airmen are there, headed by James Franco playing Rawlings, who falls in love with an endangered French country gal (Jennifer Decker), whom he must rescue.
There are scenes showing the training of raw volunteers, the missions in which some must die and the encounters in the sky between the Americans and the Germans, including the long gone examples of chivalry from one pilot to a fallen enemy.
The action sequences are the best, not only for the expertly crafted visuals, but for taking us away from the story and dialogue for a while, although not entirely, as some plot elements are worked out in the clouds as well. The cast includes Jean Reno as the French captain, Abdul Salis as a black pilot and David Ellison as the man who needs to redeem himself. The film reminds us of the days when air war was more personal, but not enough of anything new is pumped into this exercise.
|